Blogger Steve Meurett visits Sunnyvale Snowbike Trail

Dec. 29, 2013

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Steve Meurett/For Wisconsinoutdoorfun.com

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WAUSAU — It's said that if you build it, they will come. Or, if there is a need, there is a way.

Those statements certainly are true of the efforts of CWOCC (Central Wisconsin Offroad Cycling Coalition), a young mountain bike club centered in the Wausau area. Central Wisconsin has been a long standing hub of off road cyclists and fortunate to be home of the Nine Mile Forest trail system, part of the Marathon County Forest. Trails had been developed there by enthusiastic volunteers over the past 25 years, but never with a strong formal club with a vision of a strong mountain biking community.

One of those visions was how to nurture the rapidly rising interest in fatbiking. Although fatbikes can be ridden year round, the root of the sport are in winter-those wide tires providing flotation on snow and opening a whole new season of pedaling. The bikes do have their limits however-once snow reaches several inches deep, it can become a real chore to make forward progress, or at the least, takes the fun factor out of riding.

Riders had discovered the big wheels could go about anywhere in winter, but sought out riding locations like packed snowmobile trails, old forest roads and even open cross country ski systems. Some pioneering trails, like the Levis Mound trail near Neillsville and the Underdown in Lincoln County even went so far as to start grooming their super fun singletrack to accommodate winter riding.

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For Wausau area riders, those trails, along with the newly developed Big Eau Plaine provided fatbiking opportunities, but also involved a lot of travel.

Nine Mile would seem to be a logical location to embrace winter riding with it's vast network of singletrack spread over a large geographic area. CWOCC had been welcome to do summer trail building for local riders, but faced some pushback from other user groups over sharing trail at Nine Mile in the winter. Even though many still felt (including myself) everyone could play nice together, a quicker route would be to look at a different location close to the metropolitan area.

“Matt Block CWOCC, board member, suggested Sunny Vale. Because it's in a flood plane, it wasn't even on the radar.” Club member Gary Barden shared with me. “A group of us walked it in the late fall, flagging as we hiked and were impressed with the terrain and the possibilities for snow biking .”

Sunnyvale Park, located in West Wausau just south of I-29, is mostly home to softball complexes and “Man-Made Lake,” a popular beach. The Rib River flows nearby and there is a surprising amount of wooded land on which to design and build a trail.

“I initially presented a proposal to build a 7-8 mile groomed trail on the location.” said Barden. “Once the county gave us the nod to move forward, Bob Dunahee worked out the details with the county who were enthusiastic about the project.”

With the blessing of the county and the instigation of Barden, Dunahee and key club members like Erik Alanko (groomer builder) and Sean Reeder, the project quickly ramped up.

“We walked the woods with our GPS based on the hardcopy map and flagged a course. We went through many variations from what we thought we could ride vs what the snowmobile would be able to groom.” reported Gary.

Eight miles of singletrack on this winter-only trail would require more than snowshoe packing to be viable. Trails like Levis Mound have fabricated purpose built rollers/drags pulled by snowmobile to speed up grooming and provide a more consistent surface to ride. CWOCC followed suit and constructed a drag to complete packing in a timely manner.

With the Sunnyvale Trail just opening, fatbike devotees have already quickly discovered this little gem.

“The trail work has been a haul. We packed a 6 month project in a 2 month period.” said Barden. It seems well worth it, for riders are not just from the Wausau area, but are also traveling from surrounding communities to enjoy this fatbike destination. As the fatbike scene continues to mature and grow, hopefully we'll see continued development like the successful Sunnyvale trail. Not only has this project helped local riders but is also hosting the Badger State Games fatbike race on January 18 ensuring further interest CWOCC's first rate undertaking.

Steve Meurett lives, works and plays in West Central Wisconsin and spends about every free moment outdoors where his passions lie. His outdoor interests take him on and off trail, pursuing mountain biking and skinny skiing, photography and hunting, while keeping an eye on wild mushrooms and the next fruit for craft wine. Steve is the Trail Director at The Levis Mound Trail System and member of the Clark County Trails Advisory Committee. He resides, teaches and is a photographer in Neillsville. Steve can be reached at steve@meurett.com.